The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 03, 1989
Filed:
Mar. 21, 1988
John M Driggers, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Thomas J Saska, Lower Burrell, PA (US);
Bruce W Bevilacqua, Penn Township, Westmoreland County, PA (US);
Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Abstract
A flexible radiant tube heater is disclosed herein which is particularly useful in thermally stress-relieving the U-bend sections of the heat exchange tubes within nuclear steam generators. The apparatus generally comprises an elongated, flexible mandrel formed from a spring composed of a heat-resistant alloy, a flexible electrical resistance heating element wound around the mandrel spring, and a flexible insulating sleeve formed from braided alumina fibers disposed around the heating element for electrically insulating the heating element from both the metallic spring and the inner walls of the tube. A nosepiece assembly and an endpiece are disposed on the front and back ends of the spring, respectively. A flexible reinforcing member which may be a thin rod of Inconel.TM. is mounted to both the nosepiece assembly and the endpiece and disposed through the windings of the mandrel coil in order to lend more tensile and compressive strength to the mandrel coil. A push rod formed from a stainless steel cable is connected to the endpiece for sliding the heater to a desired location in a tube.